Why Does Anyone Want To Buy Your Book?

 

 

Authors are so married to their words and willfully blind to their competition that they ignore the need to distinguish their book and distill their branding message down to a singular reason someone should read it.

Here’s my question: Why would someone read your book? What does it offer readers?

What is the answer?

If you stumble and bumble on this, your book is dead. Just walk away from it.

Let’s try this exercise in reverse. Try to answer why you do what you do and make the choices that you make. For instance, you will likely have dinner tonight. What will you choose to eat? Why?

You probably go through a checklist that starts with whom you will eat with and thus, you must consider their needs and wants. Then you decide if it is to be home cooking, ordering in, or going out. You query yourself on costs, convenience, timing, and preferences vs choice availability. You may also have dietary and food allergy considerations weighing in. You think about how hungry you are, what you had for lunch today or dinner yesterday, and what would make you feel good. You go through all of this because you don’t want to invest time, money, or mindshare on a bad option. You don’t want to be disappointed. In the end, one thing above all others weighs on you and inspires or forces a selection upon you.

Well, book-reading decisions are much harder than that. Everyone has the option of selecting a book from the tens of millions of choices out there — and the average American only reads a few books a year. Compare that to choosing from a few dozen food options 365 times a year.

My food choices usually involve coffee or chocolate. They taste great and make me feel good. Most other things lose to them. For others, when it comes to books, they may have defined parameters as well. Their buying decision can be based on one or more factors, including these:

* Price
* Length
* Genre
* Author
* Publisher
* Format
* Needs
* Wants

* Mood
* Reviews
* Friend Recommendations

It may just come down to one’s mood. Do they need a comedy? A thriller? Romance?  A history lesson?

An author must know why one could be potentially interested in their book. Then, they must make the case that their book offers what they want in a way that is better/cheaper/more convenient than competing books or other forms of content — movies/television/theatre/music etc.

So, what is so special about your book? Prioritize what the most appealing aspects are and then string them together in one all-consuming, compelling sentence that blows people away.

Here, look at dating sites as an example. You may see photos of hundreds of women. You thin out the herd just based on their looks. And based on their appearances you look at specific facial features and body parts. You look at their smile, their clothes, and many data points, trying to decide whom you desire. Then you filter out things in their profiles, making snap judgments without even speaking to them. Somehow, out of so many choices you zeroed in on a handful to pursue. Books are looked at in a similar way, from their looks (cover) to their profiles (descriptive back-cover copy).

So, what does your book offer — that people want or need and that gets delivered better than others books? You need to answer that question now.

 

Need PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with 3.6 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 4,900+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.